Brussels - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini believes that the situation in Ukraine should be the main issue on the agenda of the EU and NATO.
“The situation in Ukraine will for sure be on the agenda and we will have a discussion there, but I would say the main topic of discussion today should be I think what is in Ukraine which is how do we ensure that we find a solution to the conflict,” she told reporters at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Mogherini recalled that the EU position concerning the sanctions against Russia remains the same – they cannot be an end in itself but only an instrument of exerting pressure with the aim of reaching peaceful solution.
“The evaluation of the sanctions, as you know, is always ongoing. We’ve always said in the past and we will continue to say in the future the evaluation of the situation on the ground is what moves us in strengthening the sanctions, in lifting the sanctions, in limiting the sanctions, in adding more elements to that, and this is a process that is going to go on in the coming weeks,” she said.
She also noted that the main problem in Ukraine today is the possibility of disruption of peaceful dialogue.
“This is the main risk that I see, that we close this window of opportunity for internal [break in transmission] and for dialogue with Russia, to which the Ukrainians themselves have worked on and that was, that is still what they’re mainly asking us to support politically, trying to find a way of solving the crisis in a political way,” the EU high representative said.
